The legend of Thanksgiving goes back more than 350 years. We have all heard
story about how Pilgrims spent Thanksgiving with Natives and ate fully, but is this what really happened?The Wampanoag Indians were descendants of Iroquois who had spent their time in New England for thousands of years. The tribe lived off land by hunting deer and other animals in summer and early fall, fishing salmon and herring in spring and then moved farther inland during winter to seek shelter from storms.
The group lived along coastal region in round-roofed houses called ‘wigwams’ unlike Midwest Indians who used teepees in order to travel quickly.
The people were friendly and hospitable towards strangers. However a group of English travelers had saddened villages across region by bringing disease and capturing many to be sold on slave market. One of villages, Patuxet, demolished by English was one of a famous Native American, Squanto.
Squanto was a Native American who befriended John Weymouth (an English Explorer) and headed back to England in order to learn their customs speak English and become Christian. During his stay, a British Slaver captured Squanto and sold him to Spanish in Caribbean. Luckily a Spanish Franciscan priest helped Squanto back to England where he would pay Weymouth to bring him back to his homeland.
